Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: Renewing Forever

SERIES: This Time Forever #2

AUTHOR: Kelly Jensen

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 285 pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 12, 2018

BLURB:

Frankie and Tommy once dreamed of traveling the world together. But when seventeen-year-old Frank kissed Tom, their plans ended with a punch to the jaw and Frank leaving town without looking back. Thirty years later, Frank’s successful career as a journalist is interrupted by his uncle’s death and the question of his inheritance—the family resort where his childhood dreams were built. When he returns to the Pocono Mountains, however, he finds a dilapidated lodge and Tommy, the boy he never forgot.

Tom’s been keeping the resort together with spit and glue while caring for Frank’s uncle, Robert—a man he considered father, mentor, and friend—and his aged mother, who he refuses to leave behind. Now Robert is gone, taking Tom’s job with him. And Frank is on the doorstep, wanting to know why Tom is still there and why the old lodge is falling apart.

But before they can rebuild the resort, they’ll have to rebuild their friendship. Only then can they renew the forever they planned all those years ago.

REVIEW:

When you know your true love is the first boy you kissed at age 16, and if that boy punched you in the face and never spoke to you again, you may be in deep trouble when you finally meet him again 30 years later. This is Frank’s life now, and even though it can be heartbreaking, it makes for a great story set-up.

So far, the books in Jensen’s “This Time Forever” series center around the home—the physical, the emotional, the ones we build ourselves, and the ones that form around us. While Charlie and Simon worked to blend homes in Building Forever, Frank is returning to his childhood home after 30 years to find his first love is right where he left him. But was it ever really home if that’s where his heart was broken? Both men are displaced in their own ways. Frank is a jet-setter, hopping across continents for the next juicy interview. And former resort manager Tom doesn’t know what to do with himself now that his home away from home is vacant. They’re both surrounded by crumbling, sagging walls, and they are, of course, the only two people who can rebuild.

I often enjoy when characters have easy, effortless chemistry, but that isn’t so with Frank and Tom. They have to work for it. They sidestep the event that tore them apart years ago even as they fall back in love, and the discussion sits quietly in the corner until they’re ready. There’s tension and snapping and fighting, but there’s always, always love, and that’s what makes them a really great couple. Jensen obviously put a lot of love into crafting each character. I do think her star character of this series so far is Charlie from the first book—no character, Frank and Tom included, are as complex or layered as him. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t well-written and enjoyable.

Though the two books are different enough that I’d hesitate to even call them a part of a series, I definitely think this is the stronger story so far. It’s more mature and it has more complex stakes. It doesn’t rely on cheap plot twists or tropes, something that annoyed me in the first book. After the explosive, affirming love scene in which Frank and Tom come together after so many years apart, the book doesn’t fade to black—it delves back into the hard stuff. It doesn’t shy away from money, illness, or the ghosts of the past. This is a dramatic book, but it never strays from being wonderfully romantic.

Sometimes, two characters just belong together, and their journey makes for an excellent story.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Riptide Publishing

Amazon